Arts in Education
Arts Enrichment at Lake Avenue
TheatreWorks performance of Dot, Dot, Dot, a musical based on Peter Reynolds' books The Dot and Ish, November 2023.
Arts education has been shown to improve both literacy and critical thinking skills, resulting in improved performance in other subject areas. Learning through the arts also promotes the notion that there can be more than one solution to a given problem, more than one answer to a question. This type of thinking is foundational to many of the skills deemed crucial for success in the 21st century –innovation, problem solving, creativity, and collaboration among them. These skills are critical not only in the arts, but in a wide variety of subject areas beyond the classroom.
Arts in Education and its companion program, Exploratory Enrichment, facilitate the infusion of the NYS Learning Standards for the arts into an educational program. The program components include:
Artist residencies and performances (ex: Lake’s Centennial Mural Project with artist Ramiro Davaro-Comas, Ms. Kitty’s Interactive Theater, Junk Music with the Junk Man, River Jack Z)
Theater and museum visits (ex: TheatreWorks, Children’s Museum at Saratoga, Tang)
Science and technology assemblies and programs (ex: 4H programming, The Ocean Adventure, Children’s Museum at Saratoga, Mad Science/The Science Chef)
Author visits (through Northshire Bookstore and independently)
Multicultural events
Across the district, each school’s parent-teacher organization works with the building principals and teachers to select, deliver, and fund Cultural Arts programming that enhances classroom curricula.
Support and underwriting for Arts in Education programming is provided jointly by the district and the parent-teacher organizations, and Arts in Education is the majority of Lake PTA’s “spend,” ensuring every student has not only access to the arts, but enhanced learning experiences through the arts.
2024-25 Programming
To Come!
September 24-27: 5th Grade Trip to Wakpominee: Homespun Community Dancing, Jim Bruchac, River Jack Z
January 13: K-5: Sweethearts & Heroes
April 22: 1st and 3rd grades: Incubation & Embryology Unit through 4H (baby chicks!)
April 28: K-2: TheatreWorks production of Ada Twist, Scientist
May (date TBD): K-3: The Ocean Adventure
Author Visits
Lake Avenue's Arts in Education Committee is excited to be able to offer a number of author visits for students in the coming months. Organized in collaboration with Northshire Booksellers, authors with national publishing houses behind them are sharing their craft and their works with our students! These programs are offered at no cost to our school, so if you have an interest in one of the books to reinforce the visit or love or reading, or want to purchase one (or more) as a gift, please consider purchasing through the PTA to continue to make these opportunities available to our students. These opportunities will become available during the school year.
October 7, 2024: Virtual Author Visit (4th grade)
October 17, 2024: Virtual Author Visit (4th grade)
November 7, 2024: In-person visit with Becky Cushing Gop, What Happens Inside a Beaver Pond? (2nd and 3rd grades, and Gop is a Lake alum!)